As water conservation continues to grow as a national and global concern, it is becoming abundantly clear that reduction in water usage and eliminating waste is an important national and global objective. Although the US population is increasing daily, the aquifers that supply potable water do not necessarily replenish according to demand. In some cases, up to 20% of the nation's population may experience moderate to extreme drought conditions at any point time. It is possible that many more will routinely experience significant drought levels in the future. Added to the population growth and limited replenishing of the aquifers, water utility infrastructures are already being stressed beyond their designed capacity while private wells often can run dry.
Toilets leaks that waste precious water have plagued us for years. While modern toilets are generally very reliable, they can and do malfunction from time to time. Perhaps the most common malfunction is when the so-called “flapper” (the rubber or other “flap” that controls the exit of water from the tank into the bowl) remains open, leaks or is misaligned. A stuck-open flapper can waste a lot of water. Sometimes the fix is as simple as jiggling the flush handle. Other times, it is necessary to replace the flapper.
Although often difficult to see and identify, a leaking flapper can sometimes be detected by observing a slight flow of water from the rim holes into the toilet bowl. It is also sometimes possible to detect the flapper's failure to close by listening for water running or trickling continuously into the tank, or for the periodic activation of the fill valve. People who are hearing-impaired may not be able to hear the water running. More modern toilets are often so quiet in their operation that a leak is audibly undetectable. Reasons that account for so many leaking toilet flappers thus include people not hearing the toilet “run” or failing to visually observe the water flowing from the bowl rim holes into the bowl. Even when these conditions are observed, the observer does not always conclude that there is a problem, or that water is even being wasted. There are many people who have paid high water bills for years, believing the bills to be normal.
On the shelves of hardware stores and do-it-yourself home supply centers, you can find up to a dozen different types of replacement flappers, many touted as being “universal”, to address this very common problem. Water utilities often acknowledge that the number-one reason for high water bills to home owners is due to leaking toilet flappers. When customer service representatives of these water utilities receive a call about a high water bill, it is common for them to automatically send out dye packs or food coloring for the customer to put inside the toilet tank. If the flapper is leaking, the dye or food coloring should be visible in the toilet bowl after a short period of time. This is a simple and effective way to detect leaky flappers, but often much water has been wasted (with corresponding cost or well run dry) by the time the problem is discovered and diagnosed.
Leaking toilet flappers are not an isolated problem. In fact, without routine maintenance, it isn't a question of “if” a toilet is going to leak, but “when”. There are over 250 million toilets in the United States. It is estimated that up to 20% are leaking at any point in time because of deteriorated, faulty, or improperly seated flappers. Some studies show that the average leaking toilet wastes 100 gallons per day or more, suggesting a total nationwide daily waste of over 5 billion gallons, or nearly 2 trillion gallons per year. This problem is not limited to the United States. Unpressurized tank-based toilets that use flappers are common around the world as are other toilet designs that can leak.
Not surprisingly, there have many previous attempts at devices that will detect leaking toilet flappers or prevent toilets from leaking. Yet, very few of these have ever resulted in successfully commercialized products. Most are not practical, too complicated for the average home owner to install, or too expensive. Some require the entire toilet to be replumbed. Others require replacement of internal toilet components. Still others don't provide helpful feedback to the user. Just as there are those who will not change or add oil in their cars until the red “OIL” light illuminates on their dashboards, some people will not replace or fix their toilet flapper unless there is something that indicates the desirability to do so. When it comes to simple routine maintenance, many of us benefit from being advised what to do and when to do it.
There is thus a long felt but unsolved need for an effective and non-invasive way to automatically detect leakage or other unintended operation of a flush toilet and provide an alert to prompt the user to take corrective action.
Exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations herein electronically monitor a toilet and provide visual and/or audible notification when the toilet is leaking.
One exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation electronically monitors the sound, vibration and/or noise generated by a toilet during its operation and provides an alert such as a visual and/or audible notification to inform a user or other entity when there is a leak.
An exemplary method of detecting unintended inflow of water into the tank of a flush toilet can comprise measuring durations between water inflows into the toilet tank; processing said durations; and based at least in part on said processing, determining when water inflow into said toilet tank is not initiated by flushing said toilet but is instead the result of cyclic periodic unintended fill valve operation due to a leak.
An exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation provides a new and useful single self-contained non-contact water flow monitoring apparatus, capable of being located anywhere on the inside or outside of a tank and flapper-based or other toilet, mounted within seconds and without tools, while automatically modeling and monitoring the water flow characteristics of the toilet. An exemplary device requires no user or factory calibration or input, and is inexpensive to mass produce. It can determine if the flapper is leaking, and how frequently the fill valve action occurs in response to the leak; and estimate the amount of water being wasted accordingly. It can also detect intermittent or non-continuous leaks.
A leaking flapper will produce a drop in the water level inside the toilet tank, causing the fill valve float (or pressure sensor) to activate, which can usually last several seconds. This phenomenon is often referred to as a “phantom flush”. As the flapper continues to leak, this process repeats itself. When a fill valve action occurs (phantom flush or actual flush), water is forced into the tank at a rate that is a function of the water pressure, toilet feed-valve, and the ports of the fill valve itself. The pressurized water produces turbulence inside the tank, which in turn produces vibration. The exemplary implementation can identify and isolate the vibration signature of a fill valve action and qualify it as either a normal flush cycle or a refill action in response to a leaking flapper.
Exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein, for use with a tank-based toilet that utilizes a flapper and fill valve, detects, analyzes, and responds to translational and/or acoustic vibration from the water turbulence produced by a fill valve action within the toilet tank, or lack thereof, of the fill valve. Some newer fill valves do not use floats—they mount on the tank bottom and operate with respect to pressure. These fill valves still employ a flapper as part of the system. The exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein can be used with all such toilet designs.
One optimal and beneficial exemplary illustrative implementation provides an inexpensive product for detecting leaking toilets that takes into account the fact that there are dozens of different types of toilets; end-users ranging from very young to very old, with varying physical and mental capabilities; countless environmental disparities (e.g., everything from single homes to high rise apartments); and occasionally, a predisposition towards not reading instructions. Simplicity is a worthy objective.
Such detection and analysis can for example in one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation provide easy-to-understand audio and/or visual or other user-perceptible feedback such as (1) the toilet is operating normally or (2) the toilet is leaking. Exemplary illustrative non-limiting devices can also or in addition provide and/or record information such as the number of times said toilet is flushed; the estimated water volume associated with each flush and the total cumulative volume.
One exemplary illustrative non-limiting method includes providing radio frequency, hard-wired, direct interface, or other telemetry for the purpose of data transmission and/or control of external devices and/or systems.
Exemplary illustrative non-limiting installation includes attaching the device by use of adhesive to the inside or outside surface of the tank, or by use of a flexible hinge or hanger, or manually snapping as an assembly onto the fill valve cap, or mechanically coupled to any water line feeding the toilet or toilets to be monitored, or other methods.
A further exemplary illustrative non-limiting device for use with a tank and flapper-based toilet can integrated with an additional attaching structure for manual attachment to the fill valve cap. A support mechanism supported by an attaching structure can act to conditionally interfere with the operation of the toilet tank fill valve assembly to prevent overflows and/or water waste in response to leak detection. See commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/036,629 filed Feb. 25, 2008 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,757,708) entitled “Toilet Bowl Overflow Prevention and Water Conservation System and Method” incorporated herein by reference.
A desirable design objective for the exemplary non-limiting implementation is simplicity of installation and use. Achieving that objective without any user setup or calibration can be accomplished by unique sensor technology and a correspondingly complex mathematical process that allows the product to be placed on virtually any tank and flapper based or other toilet (there are hundreds of different models), accounting for dozens of different types of fill valves, flappers, and variations in water pressure (even on the same toilet), while simultaneously ignoring external noise, incidental bathroom disturbances and all kinds of interference.
Because vibration signature is different from toilet to toilet, the exemplary non-limiting implementation first “learns” its environment. After attaching the product to the toilet and pulling the battery activation tab, the user is instructed to flush the toilet. The exemplary implementation senses and records characteristics of the noise and/or vibration during this flush and following refill operation and, in response thereto, mathematically models the toilet as a function of the vibration due to water turbulence, committing the “flush signature” to memory. The “flush signature” is used to help determine other toilet characteristics, such as whether or not the flapper is leaking. The modeled flush signature is also used to determine when an actual flush is taking place so the user can be alerted upon completion of the flush cycle.
Depending upon what data is modeled when the unit is first installed, and given the actual normal use of the toilet and any associated background noise, it can take some time (e.g., up to 48 hours) to “learn” and fully model the toilet and respond accordingly to leaks. However, in many instances, the exemplary implementations can mathematically model the toilet and detect leaks in just a few hours.
Additional features and advantages of non-limiting exemplary illustrative implementations include:                Environmentally friendly—protects the environment by conserving water and eliminating water waste        Low cost        Easy to deploy        Attending to leaks can save money        Installs in seconds—No tools required        Fully Automatic—No set up necessary        Works on any toilet        Visual and/or audible alerts        Small, sleek design        High sensitivity—detects even leaks you cannot see or hear        Detects vibration, sound and/or noise the toilet generates during operation (e.g., from turbulence when fill valve open)        Detects leakage based on water inflow using non-contacting sensing techniques        Dynamically adaptable to changing conditions        Uses statistical analysis and modeling techniques to analyze toilet characteristics        Able to effectively detect even intermittent leaks        Conserves battery life so device can remain in operation for many months without battery replacement        Same transducer can be shared between sensing and annunciating operations, thereby saving cost        No user input required—fully automatic operation        Easy Peel/Place/Pull installation        Directly acousto-mechanically coupled to toilet        Non-contact—no need to contact water or interfere with water inflow or outflow        No plumbing required        Non-invasive: no modification of toilet or toilet components required        Senses wide spectrum noise generated by water turbulence within the toilet        Can use an inexpensive rugged low power sensor such as a piezo-electric vibration sensor        Mathematically models toilet operation        Compares current operation with baseline to detect abnormalities        Learn mode detects/records characteristics of a particular toilet        Sleep mode conserves power        Can provide status when toilet is flushed        Can provide status periodically to inform user that unit is operating        Some implementations allow users to provide control inputs; other implementations provide completely automatic operation requiring and/or accepting no user inputs        Display can be complex or simple; some implementations display detailed information, other implementations provide simple status display such as Green (unit functioning properly), Red (toilet is leaking and requires attention), Yellow (battery low)        Other indications and/or alerts are possible        Leak indication can be provided periodically (e.g., every 20 seconds) when a leak has recently been detected (e.g., within the last 24 hours) and/or after user-initiated or other flushes        Leak indication can be provided with less frequency if leak has been detected but not so recently (e.g., audible indication approximately every three hours if a leak has not been corrected within 72 hours after detection)        Can provide periodic indication when battery needs replacement        Some implementations provide field-replaceable batteries, other implementations are sealed units do not allow field replacement of batteries; others use alternative power sources        Can be located outside, inside or within toilet tank or other structure        Can be installed on a toilet in the field or at time of manufacture        Other        